Cherries intended for fresh consumption are generally packaged with their stems intact. After being picked, cherries are often in clusters of two or more cherries joined at the stem. In order to be processed by various automatic size-sorting machines, the cherries must be separated into individual cherries with a single stem. To ensure the most attractive packaged product, it is important that the stems of the cherries be cut as closely as possible to the point of intersection between the stems. Imprecise cutting results in one cherry from a cluster having a very short stem, leaving its mate with an unattractive double, “inverted-V” stem. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that different varieties of cherries have different stem lengths.
Previous devices, such as the device from U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,492, utilize a transport belt to move the clusters toward the cutting blades. Theses belts often travel at high speeds, which results in significant impact bruising of the fruit. The device from U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,492 will impart additional damage to the fruit by lifting the cherry clusters and pressing them against anvils at the moment of cutting.
Furthermore, no known device provides for the ability to be adjusted according to the stem length of the cherry variety being processed.
It is therefore the intention of the present invention to provide a machine and method for automatically declustering cherries by cutting the stems of joined cherries at their point of intersection, thus resulting in a high percentage of cherries with uniform stem length. The device according to the invention is also intended to provide gentle handling of the fruit and be adjustable to accommodate different cherry varieties.